Acting President of Smith College, Dean of the College of Smith College, Professor of English at Smith College, and President of Radcliffe College. Contains biographical material, correspondence, materials related to professional and volunteer work, and photographs.

Terms of Access and Use:

Restrictions on access:

Materials in the Smith College Archives are open for use, with the following exceptions: "Office Files," files of records created for the use of the administrative unit that created them, are closed to research for a period of 10 years following their creation.

Board of Trustees' records are closed permanently.

In all cases, the College Archives will continue to provide public access to materials that were intended to be public at the time of their creation (press releases, publications, etc.)

Restrictions on use:

Smith College retains copyright of materials created as part of its business operations; however, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Smith College, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.

Smith College Archives

Biographical / Historical

Born on December 11, 1876 in Moorhead, Minnesota, Ada Comstock was the eldest of three children; she was bright, vivacious, and very much a tomboy in her early childhood. Her father, a successful lawyer, recognized her capabilities and potential and set about to cultivate them by encouraging an early and sound education for his daughter.

Ada completed her high school education at the age of fifteen and then went on to college. In 1895 she transferred from the University of Minnesota to Smith College, where she completed her last two years of undergraduate study. As a Smith student, Ada often questioned the established rules and norms of college life. While a resident of Hubbard House, she was given a case of champagne which the housemother felt should be given away. Instead, in what was characteristically her spirit, she decided to store it in the water cooler to refresh her friends!

After graduating from Smith in 1897, Ada went on to a graduate program at Moorhead State Normal School where she became certified to teach. She then entered Columbia University for graduate work in English, History, and Education, and by 1899 was ready to return home to look for a job. In 1907, after teaching rhetoric at the University of Minnesota, she was appointed the University's first Dean of Women. In this capacity, she was instrumental in improving the quality of life for the women of the college, arguing persistently that a college was responsible for one's physical and intellectual well-being.

In 1912, Ada came to Smith as the first ever Dean of the College and to teach English. Particularly challenging to her was the opportunity to advise and teach young women in an all-female institution. One of the most important tenets of her educational philosophy was the inculcation in young women of self-respect, one aspect of which was knowing how to employ oneself. Ada believed very strongly throughout her entire life that a college education should inspire women to take a part in the shaping of the world.

In 1917, when the Presidency of Smith College became vacant, Ada was given the responsibility of its operation for approximately 6 months, but was neither given the title of acting President nor was she considered for the position. Despite Ada's significant and numerous contributions to the College, Smith was not ready for its first woman President.

Ada was an early member of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, later called the American Association of University Women which she served as president. She was a founding member and one of the five American voting delegates to the first conference of the International Federation of University Women in London in 1920 and at the second in Paris in 1922. One of their objects was the forwarding of higher education for women in every country in the world. She was active in other areas in public life as well. In 1929 she was the only woman named by President Herbert Hoover to an eleven-person commission to study problems of law enforcement. She was a president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vice Chairman of the American Council of Institute of Pacific Relations and served on the National Committee for Planned Parenthood.

The chance to become the President of a women's college presented itself to Ada in 1923 when Radcliffe offered her the position of their first full-time President. Throughout most of her administration, Ada Comstock struggled with trying to maintain a balance between Radcliffe's association with Harvard and its establishment as an independent women's college. Under President Comstock, Radcliffe was able to launch a nationwide admission program, improve student housing, construct new classroom buildings and expand the graduate program. In short, Radcliffe's permanence was assured. In 1943, Ada felt her work at Radcliffe was complete. She had brought the institution to distinction and maturity, and it was now time to move on.

Her honors were numerous, fourteen honorary degrees were conferred on her, including Smith's L. H. D. in 1922. Each of the three institutions she had served, the University of Minnesota and Smith and Radcliffe Colleges have residence halls named for her.

At the age of sixty-seven, she stepped down from the Presidency and shortly after announced her marriage to Wallace Notestein, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University, a man she had known since her days at the University of Minnesota. Retirement for Ada was an extremely busy period in her life. She continued to be actively involved with the Board of Trustees of Smith College, worked on plans for the graduate center at Radcliffe, did extensive educational committee work, administered a two-career household, and traveled extensively with her husband. Mrs. Notestein died in December of 1973.

The Ada Louise Comstock Papers contain biographical materials, correspondence, employment histories, speeches and writings, information on her voluntary services and photographs that span Comstock's life and career as Dean of Smith College, President of Radcliffe College and retirement.

This collection is organized into five series:

I. Biographical Materials

II. Correspondence

III. Employment

IV. Photographs

V. Speeches, Writings, and Publications

Information on Use

Terms of Access and Use

Restrictions on access:

Materials in the Smith College Archives are open for use, with the following exceptions: "Office Files," files of records created for the use of the administrative unit that created them, are closed to research for a period of 10 years following their creation.

Board of Trustees' records are closed permanently.

In all cases, the College Archives will continue to provide public access to materials that were intended to be public at the time of their creation (press releases, publications, etc.)

Restrictions on use:

Smith College retains copyright of materials created as part of its business operations; however, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Smith College, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.

This section of the collection consists of correspondence, both professional and personal with several letters to and from Ada's closest friend, Mabel Dick Swan.

Smith College

1945 - 1967

Box 719.2: folder 9

Mabel Dick Swan

1937 - 1962

Box 719.2: folder 10

Mabel Dick Swan

1963 - 1969 n. d.

Box 719.2: folder 11

Mabel Dick Swan

1972 - 73 n. d.

Box 719.2: folder 12

General

1912 - 1973

Box 719.2: folder 13

Helen French Greene

1917 - 1923

Box 719.2: folder 14

Harriet Louise Peloubet

1932 - 36

Box 719.2: folder 15

Comstock Family

1914 - 1920

Box 719.2: folder 16

Series III: Employment

This section contains folders housing information pertaining to much of Ada's work, both professional and voluntary dating from 1912 to 1969.

University of Minnesota

n. d.

Box 719.2: folder 17

Smith College: Dean's Reports

1912 - 1923

Box 719.2: folder 18

Smith College

1912 - 1923

Box 719.2: folder 19

Smith College: Press Board

1920

Box 719.2: folder 20

Radcliffe College: Inauguration

1923

Box 719.2: folder 21

Radcliffe College

1923 - 1943

Box 719.2: folder 22

Series IV: Photographs

The collection contains five folders of photographs dated from 1897 through 1967 with a few undated photos.

Photographs (Given to Walter F. Ellis)

n. d.

Box 720: folder 1

General

1897 n. d.

Box 720: folder 2

General

1920 1940

Box 720: folder 3

As Mrs. Notestein

1949 - 1967

Box 720: folder 4

of portrait presented to Smith College by Cecilia Beaux

1923

Box 720: folder 5

Series V: Speeches, Writings, and Publications

This section of the collections is further divided into three smaller sections - speeches, writings and publications including two large bound collections of speeches and writings.

Publications

1915 - 1945

Box 720: folder 6

Reunions

Invitations from classes for reunions

1947 - 1976

Box 720: folder 7

Smith College Alumnae Council

1946

Box 720: folder 8

Speeches

Smith College A. A. U. W.

1922 n. d.

Box 720: folder 9

Smith College A. C. A.

1916 n. d.

Box 720: folder 10

Amherst College

1921 - 22

Box 720: folder 11

Bryn Mawr College

1922

Box 720: folder 12

"The College Curriculum as a Matter of Teaching"

n. d.

Box 720: folder 13

Smith College Commencement

1925

Box 720: folder 14

Commencement Address

n. d.

Box 720: folder 15

"How to Become a Dean of Women"

n. d.

Box 720: folder 16

Smith College

Greetings to the Class of 1921

1917

Box 720: folder 17

Heads of House

1913 - 1921

Box 720: folder 18

Higher Education

1925 n. d.

Box 720: folder 19

League of Women Voters

n. d.

Box 720: folder 20

"Welcome to Madame Curie"

1921

Box 720: folder 21

Phi Beta Kappa Society

n. d.

Box 720: folder 22

S. C. A. C. W.

1921 1922

Box 720: folder 23

Student Government

1921

Box 720: folder 24

"Prayer for Colleges"

n. d.

Box 720: folder 25

"Vocational Training for Women"

1915

Box 720: folder 26

on War Activities

n. d.

Box 720: folder 27

General

n. d.

Box 720: folder 28

Smith Clubs

1912 - 1939

Box 720: folder 29

General

n. d.

Box 721: folder 1

General

1930s

Box 721: folder 2

General

1940s

Box 721: folder 3

General

1950s

Box 721: folder 4

on Press Release

1949

Box 721: folder 5

on Memorial Service for Elizabeth Cutter Morrow

1955

Box 721: folder 6

General (boxed)

1937 - 1940

Box 721: folder 7

General: Compiled by Robert Loeffler

n. d.

Box 721: folder 8

Bound Collection of Speeches and Writings I

1981

Box
722

Bound Collection of Speeches and Writings II

1981

Box
723

Voluntary Services

Alumnae Association Class of 1897

1947 - 1967

Box 724: folder 1

President Mendenhall Inauguration

1959 - 1969

Box 724: folder 2

Smith College Panel on Postwar Planning

1945 - 46

Box 724: folder 3

Board of Trustees

1940 - 44

Box 724: folder 4

Board of Trustees

1945 - 46

Box 724: folder 5

Board of Trustees: Committee on Needs

1945 - 46

Box 724: folder 6

Board of Trustees: Committee on Needs (library)

1945

Box 724: folder 7

Board of Trustees

1946 - 47

Box 724: folder 8

China Colleges - Commission on Women's Higher Education in China

1945 - 46

Box 724: folder 9

China Colleges - China Institute

1945 - 47

Box 724: folder 10

China Colleges - International Federation of University Women

n. d.

Box 724: folder 11

Reid Hall

1947 - 1949

Box 725: folder 1

Reid Hall

1950 - 1954

Box 725: folder 2

Reid Hall

1955 - 1958

Box 725: folder 3

Reid Hall

1959 - 1960

Box 725: folder 4

Reid Hall

1961 - 1965

Box 725: folder 5

Smith College Alumnae Council

1937 - 1960

Box 725: folder 6

Smith College Anniversary Observance Committee

1948 - 49

Box 725: folder 7

Smith College Anniversary Fund

1945 - 46

Box 725: folder 8

RESTRICTED

Trustees Committee of Instruction

1945 - 49

Box
725

Correspondence re: Deanship

1945 - 47

Box 726: folder 1

Candidates for Dean (in alphabetical order)

1945 - 48

Box 726: folder 2

Committee to find President

1948 - 49

Box 726: folder 3

Selection of New Trustee (1946)

1945 - 46

Box 726: folder 4

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